Fans and actors will miss Saigon

Tears will be shed when Miss Saigon closes on Saturday after 10 extraordinary years in the West End. But for some, who owe their very existence to the show, life is only just beginning. They are the Miss Saigon babies, children born to couples who joined the show from all over the world, met, fell in love and married.One of them is 18-month-old Cassandra Jae, though her life is already touched with sadness in a way that echoes the Madame Butterfly story of the musical.

Her mother is Criselda Collis, one of many young performers recruited in the Philippines to play Vietnamese bar girls, soldiers, Bangkok hustlers and dancers.She came from Manila in 1996 and fell for British actor Paul Collis, then in the leading role of Chris, the GI whose Vietnamese girlfriend Kim bears his child. Cris was pregnant with Cassandra when Paul fell ill. He had a heart problem.

He was just 29 when he died. «It was so sudden,» recalled Cris. «He was taken to hospital and initially seemed to pull through.

He said, 'I am so happy that my life is complete. I have got my family, I have a baby and I have done some good roles in the West End.'»Paul lived just long enough to see his daughter, born only two weeks before he died. «She was premature, which was a blessing in disguise,» explained Cris.

By the time Paul became ill, he had left the show to play Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. «He was going to be the youngest Phantom ever, but he got ill and did not make it. That was very unfortunate,» says Cris.

«It has been difficult for me since then but I have got very supportive in-laws. If it was not for them, I would have gone home. It was hard to go back to the show because it reminds me of him.

But as a single mother I had to work.»Cris is not sure what the future holds for her when the show closes. «It will be very sad,» she said. «It has brought about a big change in my career and my life.

Everyone here left their family and friends for a new culture, which is very aggressive compared with back home. You have to assert yourself.»Another Miss Saigon baby, eight-month-old Isabella Camille Briones, will be making her new home in the United States. She is the daughter of American Megan